Greenko Sees $435 Million of Sales From 1,000 MW of Wind, Hydro

According to reports, Greenko Group Plc (GKO), an Indian clean- energy developer, sees annual sales of 330 million euros ($435 million) by building and buying 1,000 megawatts of renewable- power facilities including wind and hydropower by 2015.

Greenko will take control of about 540 megawatts of wind energy and 450 megawatts of hydropower, as well as biomass and gas operations, Mark Thompson, director of corporate affairs at the Hyderabad-based company, said in a phone interview. About an equal split between hydropower and wind would probably bring in about 330 million euros of revenue, Thompson said.

Wind and water power are among the cheapest power sources in India, with “huge” demand and a lack of capacity, he said.

The average monthly energy shortfall in India was almost 9 percent at the end of last quarter, compared with 5.5 percent a year earlier, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates.

Greenko is building about 190 megawatts of hydropower and 350 megawatts of wind farms and has enough money to reach 1,000 megawatts of capacity by 2015, Thompson said. It received $70 million for projects from Standard Chartered Plc a year ago.

The company will get about a third of its hydropower from acquisitions, Thompson said. “India is seeing quite a few firms that own hydro projects that are non-core to their activities and because raising capital in the country is challenging at the moment, these companies are selling their hydro,” he said.

“It’s opportunistic on our part and there are quite a few potential targets in the pipeline that we could acquire if we can get them at the right price,” Thompson said, adding Greenko can earn a cash return three years earlier by buying hydropower.

About 57 percent of India’s capacity was from coal at the end of September, 18.8 percent from large hydropower and 8.7 percent from wind, according to data compiled by BNEF.